Testimonials

Groton School engaged several vendors to present a NAC solution for our
campus to replace our manual home grown network registration system.
Vendor after vendor presented systems that not only missed our basic
requirements but required complicated configurations to our infrastructure
as well as a huge hit on our budget. What was even more concerning was a
lack of knowledge transfer from the vendors and an inability to explain
their own products.

We downloaded and installed Packetfence and saw immediately that it
contained the requirements and features we were looking for. A one hour
conversation with Inverse revealed that we had found a vendor that had the
knowledge to understand and integrate seamless with our environment. The
installation was smooth, on time and we received complete documentation
and explanation from Inverseâs extremely talented team. Inverse as set the
bar for the knowledge, service, and responsiveness we expect from our
integrators.

After running a commercial NAC solution for 5+ years, we grew tired of the lagging support for new operating systems and the stagnant development of the platform. Being a pro open-source institution, we looked to the open-source community for a solution. That solution was PacketFence. Implementation has been relatively stress free, even as we migrate thousands of existing devices to the new system.

Inverse has provided top-notch support, offering incredible customer and technical service. Feature and bug reports were turned around in mere days, allowing us to quickly proceed with our implementation. As an added bonus, Packetfence has an active user community with a number of expert users willing to help with implementations. Questions asked on the mailing list are often answered within a few hours.

Packetfence has been running solid since our initial implementation, and not even the release of a new operating system has impeded use. With our old NAC system, we'd still be waiting for the vendor to release a compatibility update. We definitely made the right choice.

After investigating many NAC solutions from large corporations, we thought there wouldn't be a way to effectively secure our network on our modest budget. Once we found PacketFence (and Inverse) we were surprised to find that PacketFence was able to outperform much more expensive solutions. Additionally, Inverse was able to quickly and cost effectively implement PacketFence into our unique environment with no downtime.

The final solution is a seamless integration of our existing network infrastructure into a rock solid PacketFence based NAC solution that secures our network, offers an easy to use self registration solution for guests of Sacred Heart Major Seminary, and allows us to easily balance the network needs of the Seminary, College, and residential populations in a single solution. The addition of PacketFence has lowered both the time and cost of management and maintenance for our network by our technology department.

I've recommended PacketFence and Inverse to all of my peer institutions.

PacketFence is simply awesome. We initially had a commercial NAC product in place, but the installation and testing went on for too long. We eventually had to cancel the project and break the contract due to missed deadlines, etc. After that, we connected with Inverse and were able to bring PacketFence online in a few days.

PacketFence adds a layer of security to our network while also simplifying our guest access process. The built-in graphs and reports are giving us information about our network and endpoints we've never had before; all while saving us thousands of dollars. We are estimating PacketFence is saving us $80k+ over a five year period.

While there are several commercial NAC solutions available, most play in the $30-$60k+ price range and demand substantial annual support agreements to boot. Some even require core-to-edge proprietary hardware for all the bells and whistles to work. In instances where full end point security (aka device interrogation) is warranted, such investments may be worth the expense and time. This is not the case for our university network â we simply need a network registration and containment system to validate ownership of personal devices and quarantine those that donât play nicely. For these requirements, PacketFence is THE ideal solution.

As we deployed PacketFence across wired and wireless networks, Inverse proved itself an invaluable resource and partner. They worked closely with our third-party switch engineers to update firmware and certify port security; customized our build for high availability; and enhanced new student and guest registration processes. PacketFence is working marvelously with over 8,000 registered devices on an infrastructure of 200-plus endpoint switches and nearly 400 wireless APs. The work Inverse provided has saved us tens of thousands of dollars in the first year alone, and we have a reliable, fully supported, and appropriately-invested NAC solution.

Berklee College of Music accepted the challenge to offer basic wireless internet access to guest VIPs,
contractors and vendors. We defined the following design criteria: the system had to be accountable,
manageable and scalable, while retaining easy to use, security, affordability - remaining free from
litigation.

During this endeavor we engaged enterprise class vendors of Cisco Systems, Enterasys and Bradford
Networks. These systems either required a large topology change, which was incompatible with our
existing topology or was cost prohibitive.

We needed to step back and re-evaluate our options. The system solution needed to integrate with
Berklee's existing Open Source deployment of 802.1x, which successfully serves our Faculty, Staff and
Students. We found that the Open Source product PacketFence with the aid and
implementation assistance of selected system partner, Inverse of Montreal was the ideal solution.

We were able to fulfill all of our design objectives while coming in well under budget. Our system
integration and resulting benefits have been presented at ACUTA and Educause conferences, which
brought much acclaim to Berklee. Inverse has become a premiere partner with Berklee College of
Music. They are nothing short of an outstanding group, deserving of high commendations.

Loyola University New Orleans is a very happy Inverse and PacketFence customer. In December 2010, we installed two clustered PacketFence servers to handle our wireless network. We wanted to provide an improved login/registration process for our wireless end users and we also needed a way to quarantine compromised computers. PacketFence helped us solve these problems and we are now planning to add our wired dormitory switches. With the help of Inverse the PacketFence installation and deployment was very easy. Our Meru and Cisco wireless equipment works perfectly.

On the Student Accommodations, PacketFence is a tool that we used to implement policies on the usage of Internet or the network. PacketFence enables us to monitor unwanted network traffic like P2P and malware across the network and it gives us the ability to quickly identify and trap the offending computers, thus securing the network and efficiently saves us time and effort to do this work.

Mark Pagulayan, Senior Network Engineer, UoA

Working with Inverse on my PacketFence implementation has been nothing less than exceptional. I have worked with many companies over the 15 years I have been in the networking field and Inverse is one of the top three companies I have ever dealt with. The engineers are very responsive, they know their product inside and out and they are willing to go the extra mile to provide me with the solution I need for my environment. The PacketFence installation I am using has all of the features I need, supports my hardware environment and is customizable enough to adapt to future needs. I am extremely satisfied with both the product and the company.

When we first looked into a network access control solution we mainly looked into Juniper and Cisco as they are well known for their networking and security equipment. We were shocked to discover the cost for each product to be over $10,000. We then focused our attention to open-source software. We were pleasantly surprised to discover the product, PacketFence. We setup the ZEN image in our VMware server with ease. We configured PacketFence for VLAN Isolation as this provides a good foundation for our network access security. PacketFence also offers device scanning, with Nessus, and intrusion prevention and detection, with Snort. At this point in time we are in the testing phases using Snort. We have had success detecting P2P applications that we installed in a controlled environment. If any questions arise during the install, or configuration, an email to the PacketFence support group will typically be answered in a few hours, which is fantastic since it is free. We have nothing but praise for PacketFence. The product has saved us thousands of dollars and has allowed our company to be more at ease knowing we have an excellent piece of software protecting against unauthorized access to our network.

PacketFence is truly an amazing tool. We were able to lab test it and then deploy it into production within month, having almost zero impact on our user base. The product has further enhanced our awareness of network and has helped add additional controls. The code design is well structured and efficiently modularized to allow customized changes without changing the core product, thus allowing upgrades to happen easier. It is a superb Open Source product.

Universities like ours have a huge challenge - how do you secure 20 buildings or more and over 1,000 ethernet ports with a staff of 9 and limited budgets? We can have great firewalls but how do you prevent a hacker from simply plugging into a port on campus and in turn circumnavigate your great firewall system? Network Access Control systems have the promise of handling this but what University can afford another new system that costs more than $50,000? We found that PacketFence does everything we need from a Network Access Control system with a price that was a fraction of a commercial solution. Working with Inverse has made a complicated problem easy. I can't imagine managing a disperse network without PacketFence.

When I was asked to look into network access control, I started by looking at the Cisco solution since our entire network uses Cisco gear. After seeing the price and complexity of the solution, I started looking for alternatives. I stumbled onto PacketFence in an online article and began investigating. Setting up the ZEN image in our VMWare environment was a breeze. In no time I was testing the VLAN isolation functionality of the system. We decided to test further and was given top notch immediate responses to all of my emailed questions. With a little customization thanks to the Inverse team, we are well on our way to a full installation. Considering this is an open source solution I have received better service from Inverse than I do with expensive closed source software. Working with the Inverse team on PacketFence has been a pleasure and I know I will get a response to any questions I have within a few hours.